| << Front page | Arts | November 9, 2007 |
Alumni Return for Inauguration Weekend Concert
The concert that took place in Finney Chapel Friday, Nov. 2, in honor of the inauguration of President Marvin Krislov, offered a prodigious display of the excellence of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music: all of the performers were either current students or alumni, and they were uniformly excellent.
With four featured acts, the evening was something of a stylistic hodgepodge, but it was certainly an enjoyable one. The program opened with two items from the Prima Trio, a student group featuring Conservatory seniors Farhad Hudiyev on the violin and Boris Allakhverdyan on the clarinet and Anastasia Dedik, OC ’06, on the piano. This group was awarded the Grand Prize and the Gold Medal at the 2007 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and, judging from its work Friday night, the awards were richly deserved.
The opening piece, Fleeting Miniatures, was written by Hudiyev himself. It is a wonderful piece, warm and lyrical, but with enough unexpected dissonance to give it a distinctly modern hue. The trio did equal justice to both aspects of the piece. They also did right by Peter Schickele’s Serenade for Three, a group of eccentric and engaging (if somewhat thin) miniatures. Here, the group displayed wonderful dynamic control, particularly in the slow second movement, as well as demonstrating a beautiful tone. The third movement was essentially a display piece, offering ample opportunities for ostentatious virtuosity for all three soloists, each of whom sailed effortlessly through the piece.
After the Prima Trio took its bows, pianist Spencer Myer, OC ’00, took the stage. As a performer, he was every bit as prodigious as one would expect, but his taste in repertoire was somewhat questionable. He began with one of those kitschy transcriptions for piano of Bach’s choral music, Sheep May Safely Graze (originally from Bach’s Cantata 208; piano transcription by Egon Petri). These transcriptions are recognizably derived from Bach, yet they bear no resemblance at all to Bach’s actual keyboard music, though Myer gave the piece a sensitive, lovely performance.
Happily, things improved with Myer’s next selection, two of Debussy’s Preludes, Les tierces alterneés and Feux d’artifice. In both these pieces (particularly the second), the pianist displayed flawless virtuosity and marvelous dynamic control. The works had exactly the eerie, otherworldly quality Debussy surely intended.
Stravinsky’s Four Etudes, Op.7 ended Myer’s program with a dull thud. At this point in his career, Stravinsky hadn’t quite found his voice. It is easy to detect the influence of Debussy, as well as Chopin and Schumann in these pieces, but it is not that easy to hear Stravinsky. Still, there were no reservations to be had about Myers’s playing.
The second half of the program began with a performance of Ravel’s Violin Sonata in G Major by one of Oberlin’s most successful alumni, Jennifer Koh, OC ’97. She was in top form, offering wonderfully pure tone, lively phrasing and in the final movement, awesome virtuosity. She was equally attuned to the piece’s lyrical qualities and its more angular ones, though it must be said that her pianist, Shai Wosner, tended to follow dutifully rather than really interact with her.
The concert came to an end with four offerings from the baritone Robert Sims, OC ’88 who specializes in black spirituals. In “Great Day,” the opener, Sims sounded just a shade underpowered, but he had completely warmed up by the end. The rest was just about perfect, provided one could accept the sound of a full-throated operatic voice in folk music. The final number, “Ol’ Man River,” was particularly stirring.
With four featured acts, the evening was something of a stylistic hodgepodge, but it was certainly an enjoyable one. The program opened with two items from the Prima Trio, a student group featuring Conservatory seniors Farhad Hudiyev on the violin and Boris Allakhverdyan on the clarinet and Anastasia Dedik, OC ’06, on the piano. This group was awarded the Grand Prize and the Gold Medal at the 2007 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and, judging from its work Friday night, the awards were richly deserved.
The opening piece, Fleeting Miniatures, was written by Hudiyev himself. It is a wonderful piece, warm and lyrical, but with enough unexpected dissonance to give it a distinctly modern hue. The trio did equal justice to both aspects of the piece. They also did right by Peter Schickele’s Serenade for Three, a group of eccentric and engaging (if somewhat thin) miniatures. Here, the group displayed wonderful dynamic control, particularly in the slow second movement, as well as demonstrating a beautiful tone. The third movement was essentially a display piece, offering ample opportunities for ostentatious virtuosity for all three soloists, each of whom sailed effortlessly through the piece.
After the Prima Trio took its bows, pianist Spencer Myer, OC ’00, took the stage. As a performer, he was every bit as prodigious as one would expect, but his taste in repertoire was somewhat questionable. He began with one of those kitschy transcriptions for piano of Bach’s choral music, Sheep May Safely Graze (originally from Bach’s Cantata 208; piano transcription by Egon Petri). These transcriptions are recognizably derived from Bach, yet they bear no resemblance at all to Bach’s actual keyboard music, though Myer gave the piece a sensitive, lovely performance.
Happily, things improved with Myer’s next selection, two of Debussy’s Preludes, Les tierces alterneés and Feux d’artifice. In both these pieces (particularly the second), the pianist displayed flawless virtuosity and marvelous dynamic control. The works had exactly the eerie, otherworldly quality Debussy surely intended.
Stravinsky’s Four Etudes, Op.7 ended Myer’s program with a dull thud. At this point in his career, Stravinsky hadn’t quite found his voice. It is easy to detect the influence of Debussy, as well as Chopin and Schumann in these pieces, but it is not that easy to hear Stravinsky. Still, there were no reservations to be had about Myers’s playing.
The second half of the program began with a performance of Ravel’s Violin Sonata in G Major by one of Oberlin’s most successful alumni, Jennifer Koh, OC ’97. She was in top form, offering wonderfully pure tone, lively phrasing and in the final movement, awesome virtuosity. She was equally attuned to the piece’s lyrical qualities and its more angular ones, though it must be said that her pianist, Shai Wosner, tended to follow dutifully rather than really interact with her.
The concert came to an end with four offerings from the baritone Robert Sims, OC ’88 who specializes in black spirituals. In “Great Day,” the opener, Sims sounded just a shade underpowered, but he had completely warmed up by the end. The rest was just about perfect, provided one could accept the sound of a full-throated operatic voice in folk music. The final number, “Ol’ Man River,” was particularly stirring.
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